Tips that aren’t about Crosshair Placement, counter-strafing and improving reaction speed.

1. Movement
2. Sound
3. Agent Knowledge
4. Ability Usage
5. Map Knowledge a. Playing default/contesting ultimate orbs
6. Wallbang
7. Communication
8. Economy
9. Prepare for your game/stop playing when needed
10. Mindset/Attitude
11. Positioning
12. Understanding the Spike
13. Understanding/Recognizing Patterns
14. Do the unexpected

I just want to say that aim is still important no matter how good of a teammate you are and how communicative you are, aim will still help you climb. With that said, you can have good aim and be hardstuck because the decisions you make could be terrible. If you aren’t going to focus on improving your aim, at least focus on these things. Here’s a bunch of things that you could improve on that aren’t crosshair placement, counter-strafing, and reaction speed.

.1 Movement

Learn to move around the map more efficiently. Learn ways to move horizontally and vertically more efficiently. A few examples are:

When going up ramps, instead of running, run and spam jump. You’ll travel up the ramp faster compared to just with running.

When getting off of zip/ropes, you can get off the rope right before the apex and crouch-jump onto surfaces just a tiny bit faster.

When going up steps, jump in a curved pattern to maintain your momentum.

.2 Sound

Understand how much sound you are making. When you shoot, move, use certain abilities or perform certain actions (dropping spike on the ground) that it will make a sound. There is a max distance for how far the sound goes and be aware of that. If you look at the minimap while running, you’ll see a sound circle. Enemies within the circle can hear whatever action you just performed.

If you walk the entire game, maybe you should keep walking. Don’t give away your position if no one knows you’re there. If you run everywhere you go, maybe you should keep running. If they heard you running from the other side of the universe, there isn’t much of a point in randomly walking half-way.

If there is NO chance of an enemy being within your sound circle, GO RUN. Sort of related to movement, but if there’s no one around to hear, you are free to run. If you have a tripwire on (Ascent B Main for example), you are able to run all the way up until the wire because there is no one there. Once you start approaching the wire, begin walking.

.2a Faking sounds

When you run, you’ll make sound BASED on what material the floor is. You can fake out enemies by making noise on certain materials/directions and then going in the opposite direction. Here’s an example:

Mid Split, push into vents and take the rope. Immediately get off the rope and walk into B Heaven. Try to give enemies the information, STOMP into vents, Take the zip or even JUMP into bottom of vent, you do all of this in an attempt to convince the enemies YOU ARE IN VENTS, but not really.

.3 Agent Knowledge

Master a select few agents. Get to know the lesser details about your agent. You have to push your limits through your agent. Here’s an example: (I would use Sova, but that’s a bit generic)

Jett has an innate passive to glide. This allows her to get onto elevated positions without using costly abilities.

Jett’s dash can be combined with Updraft to really throw off enemy aim. Jett’s dash can be used to break Cypher tripwires.

Jett’s smoke lasts just enough to get half a spike defusal. Jett’s smoke can be used to create one-ways almost anywhere. Jett’s smoke can be used to stop a recon.

Understanding and knowing all these things are important because they allow you to push your agent to their limits. You want to be like, if I dashed in this direction, smoked myself in, maybe I could’ve won that round OR if I knew this molly line-up, I could’ve won that round.

.4 Ability Usage

In relation to agents, learn when and how to utilize your abilities/utility. Learn molly line-ups, Viper walls, one-way smokes, Cypher trips. A great way to execute onto sites is to use and chain a lot of utility together. A great example of this is, Breach flash plus Jett dash combo. It’s deadly if timed right because you’re blind and you hear the sound of the dash and usually followed by death.

But this only works if it’s timed properly. If Jett dashes in too late, the blind will have faded, if Jett dashes too early, nobody is blind.

One great way I got teams to execute more effectively is by saying “on go, use ALL your utility” or “Omen smoke and then we go (use your flashes, recon, molly)”. When 5 abilities are used at the same thing, the pressure and sudden nature of it will often catch enemies off guard.

.4a Ultimate

Use your ultimate, please. The only few ults I can see you holding onto/not using are, Viper ultimate, Jett ultimate. I’ll get onto that later. When you have your ult, you can secure the round/win the round by using your ult. Stop holding onto them for a montage play, just use them to get site or get a kill. That will win you more rounds and games.

Back to Viper and Jett

Viper first, this ult can screw over your team. If your team is oping or holding great angles, the ult forces your team to take short range encounters. This is even worse when versing enemies with Shotguns and SMG’s and your team having Ops and rifles.

Jett. This ult is not needed if you have a Rifle. Usually better when you have an Op or on a save round, HOWEVER, use it if you feel like it would be useful, after all it is like a better secondary weapon.

.5 Map Knowledge

Understand where the ultimate orbs are, understand where to smoke, common angles to play in, common spots, every corner of the map, every object you can get on top off, understanding the map specialty (Bind’s teleporters). These things play a role in how you might want to play different depending on the map.

On a map like Bind or Haven where rotates happen frequently, you might want to anchor on a site waiting for that to happen.

Most boxes in this jump just cover your head so you can jump and see enemies. Great way to getting info safely. Same thing with certain spots, where you can jumpspot for info (Split B default jumpspot)

**.5a Contesting ultimate orbs

Contesting ultimate orbs is a great way of winning more rounds passively. They are afterall a part of the map, they are, like any spot on the map, something that should be contested. As stated before, more ults = more winning.

.6 Wallbang

In relation to last point, understand WHERE and WHEN you can wallbang. You can prefire a lot of common spots for free kills. You should learn when YOU can shoot through the wall and the enemies can’t. Here’s two examples.

Ascent B Site, Odin spam. Almost everybody knows this but, if you have a HIGH penetration gun, you can shoot through the walls in B Main. If the enemies only have Light or Medium penetration guns, they can’t shoot you back.

Icebox A side. When going up A Belt, you can wallbang A Nest and kill players on the zip. DO THIS EVERY ROUND. Players should NEVER be able to get into A Nest if you do this.

Another thing about wallbangs, instead of peeking into their spawn barrier and prefiring common angles. Go right up to BEFORE the peek and wallbang the common spot. You still get damage off and there’s less chance of you dying immediately.

.7 Communication

Learn to communicate effectively, it’s one of those crucial skills to have while playing an FPS game. Tell your team when you’re going to flash or rotate or reloading. Don’t keep them guessing and trying to predict how you’re going to play, you have a voice. (Please don’t be the team flashing Phoenix or Breach)

ON A SIDE NOTE, if you ARE communicating and get bullied/flamed/talked down on, MUTE THEM. People who give bad communication, only flame/rage, you should mute them. They only bring you and your team down.

.8a Economy

Simple rules to economy; buy as a team, save as a team. By managing your economy well, you can get an edge on your opponents by having more ‘rifle rounds’ than they do. Here’s a bunch of things you could do to save/manage your economy better

.8a Learn to use off-meta guns (Stinger, Shorty, Ares, Bucky, etc)

You might not have enough for a Phantom/Vandal so learn to use the Bulldog or Guardian. On a save round, learning to utilize the Stinger/Bucky/Sheriff is important to winning the round and potentially the game. Don’t be that person who uses classic, no shield but still have 2000 excess credits for the following round. Use those excess credits on utility, shield, cheap guns.

.8b Always try to buy light shield (at least on non-pistol rounds)

In a THEORETICAL environment, you almost never need Heavy Shield. The math behind damage dealt by Phantom/Vandal/Op are all similar in the sense that, if you get Headshot, you die either way (Heavy shield or light shield). If you take enough body shots, you also die in the same number of hits (The only exception is Phantom being able to hit 5 body shots at 15m+), but I’d argue MOST of the time, you get headshot before taking 5 body shots from a Phantom or you get one-tapped.

Basically, on a SAVE round, buy LIGHT SHIELD. Being able to survive an extra bullet is always important, it’s cheap, and if you get a gun mid-round you are reasonably able to win the next fight.

.9 Prepare for your game/stop when needed

Prepare for your game by sleeping, eating, or doing actual warmup before the game. If you’re in a bad mood, maybe on your 4th game lost in a row, consider stopping. Be ready to play and perform well and have that mindset because it’ll help you make the ‘right’ decisions and stop you from making stupid ones.

.10 Mindset/attitude

Try to have a positive mindset, try to look back on things YOU did wrong and what YOU could’ve improved on. Sometimes you just potato’d 25 bullets, most of the time, you did something stupid like peeking too wide or pushing through smokes, etc. Focus on improvement and you’ll win more games. Stop worrying about your monkey teammates. Let them do monkey things. Own up to your own mistakes, try not to have an ego, be able to understand that people might not be as good as you in some fields/ways, but they are in others. Let yourself and others shine when they can.

.11 Positioning

When your teammate is pushing up, try your best to follow up. Even if it’s a ‘dumb’ play, two people making one bad decision together is sometimes better than two people making their own plays. This is even more true the more people you have.

Example, do you full push a site with 5 people or with 3 people? 5 obviously. Even if someone says, oh they have a Killjoy there I don’t want to push that. Sometimes that extra person is the deciding factor.

When your teammate is playing back, try to play back as well. Don’t try to do things solo, you have 4 people on your team. As much you think they are monkeys and think that you don’t have living humans with brains on your team, they do and they’ll help you if you ask for it. But be aware of players pushing up or playing back, try to accompany them on their magical journey.

.11a Setting up Crossfires

A crossfire is when two people watch an angle from two different sides. You want an enemy to push in a way so that to kill the two people watching the angle to have to swing 90 degrees left or right to kill one person and then 180 to kill the other. It doesn’t ALWAYS have to be like this, but usually best LIKE this. The angles can be varying, but generally you want two people standing in two different positions watching ONE angle, usually a choke/tunnel.

.11b Playing off contact

Playing off contact just means, if I see them or you see them, swing or peek them. This is important for trading, don’t let them die in vain. Also, when people say “play off my contact” try to get as close as possible without showing yourself. Stop tucking yourself into the damn corner, be ready to swing and shoot.

SIDE NOTE for Crossfires/Trading/Contact, sometimes I suck and I miss okay? Yes there’s two of us and one of them, yes we have a perfect set-up, but my aim isn’t great. Sometimes I potato but at least I did the ‘right’ thing.

.12 Understanding the Spike

As much as I’d like to bore you with facts about the spike (how long it takes to plant/defuse, etc), I’m going to talk more in-depth about post-plant and other things related to the spike.

12a. Fake planting

When you press the Spike plant key, basically everyone on the enemy team will know that the spike is there. It’s loud, it’s clear and usually people will use their utility to stop you from planting. Fake plant means to press the Spike plant key and then immediately moving away from where you pressed the key. Especially if you’re planting with enemies nearby, they WILL try to stop you from planting via shooting or abilities. By fake planting you can bait out their resources and save yourself from death.

.12b Defusing/Fake defusing

Obviously I can’t tell you when you should stick/get half/tap as for every situation is a little bit different. For a general rule of thumb, if you can tap the bomb, TAP THE BOMB. It forces the enemies to blow their resources trying to figure out if you’re sticking the defuse. I’ll try my best to give many examples.

Lets say 4v5 retake. You clear out site, ALL of them are hiding somewhere. Try your best to stick, but usually you want to tap because there will be 500 bullets and 2 mollies coming your way.

1v1 retake. You don’t know where they are, but you have a lot of time (about 30 seconds). You can do two things. Either use that time to clear out site QUIETLY or Tap the bomb in hopes they’ll show themselves. If you have smokes or stall abilities, you can use that to safely GET HALF.

1v1 but you only got like 10 seconds left. You got to get half, there’s no other way around it, if it means you get shot, so be it. You HAVE to stick the half and then look for your opponent and try to kill them as fast as possible. You only have a few spare seconds, use them wisely.

2v2, but they have molly lineups/utility to stop defuse (Sova Ult/Brim Ult). One of you has to push them or maybe both of you. If you have time, try to both push the opponents, but generally you want one person near the Spike at all times.

.12c Stop planting the second you get onto site

This makes me mad how many times you lose a round because you planted too early or when no one is around or if you haven’t cleared site. Planting the bomb rarely wins you the round, why do I say that? The spike being planted merely forces the enemies to take gun fights. The round still MOSTLY involves your team out shooting the enemy team.

Another thing, instead of going to plant the spike while totally alone and with no information, you could use that time to look for picks. Push into their spawn and go for kills (if you’re going to do this, give someone else spike)

Here’s a rare example. Spike carrier gets onto site and they know it’s empty. Maybe, don’t plant. Why? If you plant solo and die, you lose the round. You can wait 5-10 seconds for your teammates to rotate close towards the bomb before you plant. Obviously, a bit situation dependent, but definitely has happened. This also applies to Omen’s who teleport cross-map, plant, die then lose the round because your team is still 15 seconds away from spike.

.12d Learn to plant in NON-DEFAULT spots

If site is clear, it’s 5v3, plant in the open. There’s less chance of dying to utility (double shock darts/KJ molly), it’s better for players playing in post-plant positions and can be seen from more angles. You plant default if you want to plant SAFELY, plant in the open if you want to win the round.

.12e Post-plant

After planting the spike, you often want to play in post-plant positions. Try to have the enemies peek or swing into crossfires or into bad angles. However, depending on the situation you might want to consider alternative options. Here are some examples

Post plant with numbers advantage. You’ve planted the spike, now just set-up crossfires and try your best to trade each other out. Maybe have one person sit back and watch flank or potentially all 5 of you sit back.

Post plant with numbers disadvantage. You’ve planted the spike, but you’ve lost a few players on the way. Try to make risky plays. Try to go for those 1v2 or push aggressively this way you can even out the playing field for the rest of your team.

1v3 or WORSE situation. Firstly, don’t plant. It won’t do you any good. All this does is bring a lot of people’s attention onto one area. They’ll just converge and eventually you’ll get shot in the back. You want to look to take the number down to 1v2 or 1v1 and then plant; play aggressive. Remember that you can’t defend the spike for 45 seconds against 4 people, it’s just unrealistic so go for alternatives.

13. Understanding pattens

When I say you should try to understand/recognize patterns, I mean to see what the enemies are doing and see what is repeating. Teams often have a designated lurker or flank watcher or person who doesn’t know how to take their hand off the W key. When you find out these things, you can use that to your advantage.

If they have a designated lurker, you should sit back, play weird angles and wait for them. You know they’re in some weird spot, waiting for your team to rotate so that they can push into your spawn for a free kill.

14. Do the unexpected

You should do the unexpected, it will catch enemies off guard and often gets you easy kills. The unexpected could be movement, maybe just hold the W key until you die. The unexpected could be an off-angle. The unexpected could be waiting for that damn lurker to slow peek into site. The unexpected could be 5 people in Hookah or A Site.

If something isn’t working, then drastic change is needed. Stop doing what you are doing and change it up. If something IS working, then probably keep doing it.

Too many times do we win a round and then stop doing what works and too many times where we keep doing what DOESN’T work. The enemies aren’t radiant 5 stacks, just keep it simple and it’ll work.